"Good day, Mr. Cham Syndulla," Max said with a slight bow to the orange-skinned Twi'lek man on the holoprojector. "I'm Max Vizsla."
"Good day, Lord Vizsla." Cham placed his right hand over his chest and returned the nod. "What can I do for you?"
"Late March—Figg Mining will be working with the Ryloth government to hold a large, dedicated recruitment fair in Lessu, Ryloth's capital. I assume you've heard."
"I have," Cham nodded. "And what are you getting at?"
"I want you and your people to stay away from it. No sabotage."
"Lord Vizsla, why would you assume I intend to sabotage a recruitment fair?"
"According to your 'old friend'—Senator Orn Free Taa—anything he supports, you oppose. This fair has his full backing. So he's worried you'll show up like you 'always do' and make trouble."
Cham chuckled. "And you believed him?"
"Whether I believe him doesn't matter." Max rolled his neck once, loosening up. "Mr. Syndulla, I'm formally inviting you and your team to provide security for the event."
"You're joking."
"I'm not. Mr. Syndulla—if anything goes wrong with security at that recruitment fair, I will hold you responsible."
Cham's smile vanished. His brow furrowed. "Lord Vizsla… is that a threat?"
"A threat?" Max laughed. "I'm not threatening you, Mr. Syndulla. I'm informing you."
"See you around."
Max cut the long-range call.
Before they'd even departed Coruscant, Senator Orn Free Taa had kept hammering on about how dangerous Cham Syndulla could be. For the senator, there was genuine concern mixed in—sure—but what he really wanted was to use the Mandalorians as a blade to remove his biggest political rival.
Max wasn't going to "remove" Cham Syndulla. If Cham died, there wouldn't be a Hera Syndulla.
But giving him a sharp little reminder? That was necessary. Because if it meant humiliating Orn Free Taa, Cham absolutely was the kind of man who might deliberately disrupt a recruitment fair.
"Chief, that signal you just cut off is calling back."
"Put it through."
"Yes, Chief."
"Mr. Cham Syndulla," Max said first, "calling back to accept my invitation?"
"Lord Vizsla. My people won't sabotage this recruitment fair. But we also won't be there providing security."
"Whether you show up or not doesn't matter. If anything happens, I'm coming to you."
"Lord Vizsla, don't be so domineering. I know Mandalorian warriors are strong—but Twi'lek fighters aren't afraid."
"Domineering? How am I being domineering?" Max put on a confused look. "You provide security, I pay wages. Ten Republic credits an hour—well above Ryloth's average pay. Want to reconsider?"
Cham let out a cold laugh. "You think I'm stupid? Even if the pay is high, do you think we'll live long enough to collect it?"
"See? You don't trust me," Max said. "So put yourself in my place—how am I supposed to take your 'no sabotage' promise on faith?"
"Put myself in your place?" Cham scoffed. "Fine. I'm inviting you to visit our base as a guest. Would you dare come?"
"I would." Max's eyes lit up. He agreed instantly. "You set the time and place. I'll be there on the dot."
A sharp glint flashed in Cham's eyes.
"You mean that?"
"I do."
"Come alone. No bringing your assault squad."
"Alone—no." Max wagged a finger once. "We're not some amateur outfit. We have procedures. I'll bring one bodyguard. That acceptable?"
Cham stared at him for several seconds, then finally spoke. "Fine, Lord Vizsla. I'll send the time and location shortly."
After ending the call, Cham issued orders to the people around him. "Activate Reserve Base Three outside Lessu. Prepare to receive a guest coming from far away."
"Yes, Commander!"
"Cham," his second-in-command Gobi Glie asked anxiously, "are you sure this is safe?"
"What could go wrong?" Cham patted his old comrade's shoulder and headed outside. "Caution is good—but there's no need to overdo it. Two people. Mandalorians or not—even Jedi—what can they really do?"
"…Fair point." Gobi nodded and followed. "Then what about the recruitment fair—do we still prepare?"
"Of course. It doesn't conflict."
"Understood." Gobi nodded hard, then shifted tone. "But Cham—I think that intel might be wrong."
Cham stopped and turned. "Which intel?"
"The one claiming Bespin's factories are a one-way meat grinder—sweatshops that chew people up and spit out nothing."
"What's wrong with it?"
"Orn Free Taa is greedy and rotten, but he isn't stupid. Standing up for a sweatshop does nothing for him."
"Simple," Cham said. "He took a payoff from the factory owner."
"That doesn't add up, Cham. We both know Taa's price is steep." Gobi handed him a leaflet—jointly printed by Figg Mining and the Ryloth government. "And with this 'resettlement bonus' on top, the cost is absurd—far more expensive than buying slaves from the Zygerrians."
Cham's brow tightened. "True. Capitalists are vicious, but they're calculators. They don't do losing deals."
"Cham… I'm worried the recruitment is a cover."
"A cover?" Cham lifted his head. "Meaning what?"
"Like you said—no one spends that kind of money to hire miners. I don't believe any owner would pay this much just to fill shifts."
"So what are you saying?"
"I'm saying they might be doing what Black Sun does—buying people for flesh-trade. And the people behind that are the galaxy's elite. That's how they can drag Orn Free Taa in to endorse it."
Cham crushed the leaflet into a tight ball in his fist.
—
PS: Cham Syndulla is Hera Syndulla's father, a Twi'lek revolutionary.
Before the Clone Wars, Cham devoted himself to Ryloth's liberation movement, trying to overthrow the Galactic Republic's corrupt rule over Ryloth. After the Clone Wars began, the Separatists invaded Ryloth. Realizing they were even worse, Cham chose to fight alongside Republic forces.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🛡️ STAR WARS: THE RISE OF MANDALORE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🛡️ MANDALORE WILL RISE AGAIN.
A warrior culture divided.
Clans fighting for survival.
A galaxy slowly moving toward war.
And someone determined to ensure that Mandalore will never again bow its head.
Star Wars: The Rise of Mandalore has 100+ chapters ahead available now.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚔️ THIS IS THE WAY OF WARRIORS
🛡️ Mandalorians
⚔️ Clan warfare
🚀 Galactic conflict
🏛️ Politics & strategy
💥 Fleet battles
🔥 Mandalorian expansion
🌌 A changing galaxy
Mandalore has fallen before.
It has been divided before.
But warriors remember.
🔥 100+ CHAPTERS AHEAD.
👉 Witness the rise before everyone else.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🌐 SrMagnusCorp: https://srmagnuscorp.com/
🔥 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/MrMagnus
🐦 X / Twitter: https://x.com/SrMagnuscorp
⚠️ Power Stones help determine future release priority!
🛡️ For Mandalore.